BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Two-thirds of the world’s mobile connections will be running on 4G and
5G networks by 2025, according to the new 2018 edition of the GSMA’s
‘Mobile Economy’ report, published today at Mobile World Congress. It is
forecast that 4G will account for 53 per cent of global mobile
connections1 by 2025 (up from 29 per cent in 2017), while 5G
networks will grow to account for a further 14 per cent, following the
launch of the first commercial 5G networks this year. The report also
measures the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) over this period and
the mobile industry’s increasing role in contributing to economic growth
and social development.

“We are at the dawn of a new era in mobile with the imminent launch of
the first 5G networks and the Internet of Things poised to further
transform the way we live and work,” said Mats Granryd, Director General
of the GSMA. “Meanwhile, operators continue to expand and upgrade their
4G networks in order to provide an evolutionary path into the 5G era,
and also evolve their offerings to unlock new revenue streams in areas
such as e-commerce, content, lifestyle, advertising and marketing, and
identity and security.

“As the mobile industry moves into the 5G era, the need for
pro-investment, pro-innovation policies and modernised regulatory
regimes has never been greater,” Granryd added. “Streamlined regulation
and further policy developments in three main areas – spectrum,
infrastructure and economics – are key to realising the full potential
of 5G for consumers, society and industry.”

Growth in 4G, 5G and the Internet of Things

In under a decade since the first commercial 4G networks were launched,
4G is on track to become the world’s leading mobile network technology
by next year and to account for more than half (53 per cent) of global
connections by 2025. During this period, operators will also be
investing in new 5G networks; beginning this year, the first wave of 5G
launches will occur in North America and major markets across Asia and
Europe. 5G connections are forecast to reach 1.2 billion by 2025,
accounting for 14 per cent of the total connections at that time.

Meanwhile, growth in the IoT will be driven by a proliferation of uses
cases for smart homes, cities, buildings and enterprises. GSMA
Intelligence forecasts that the number of IoT connections (cellular2
and non-cellular) will increase more than threefold between 2017 and
2025, reaching 25 billion. To date, 23 mobile operators have
commercially launched 41 Mobile IoT networks worldwide across using the
NB-IoT and LTE-M standards.

The mobile industry signed up its 5 billionth unique mobile subscriber3
last year and is forecast to add almost another billion by 2025,
reaching 5.9 billion subscribers – equivalent to 71 per cent of the
world’s expected population by that point. Subscriber growth over this
period will be driven by developing countries, particularly Bangladesh,
China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, as well as markets across
Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Further, by 2025, it is expected
that 5 billion subscribers will be using their mobile phones to access
the internet, up from 3.3 billion in 2017.

A Growing Contributor to the Economy and Social Development

The mobile ecosystem accounted for 4.5 per cent of global GDP globally
in 2017, a contribution equivalent to $3.6 trillion in economic value
added4. This contribution is forecast to reach $4.6 trillion,
or 5 per cent of GDP, by 2022 as countries around the globe increasingly
benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought
about by increased take-up of mobile services and M2M/IoT solutions. In
2017, the wider mobile ecosystem also supported 29 million jobs
(directly and indirectly) and made a substantial contribution to the
funding of the public sector; almost $500 billion was raised through
general taxation, plus a further $25 billion via mobile spectrum
auctions.

The report highlights that, in addition to contributing to economic
growth, mobile technology is increasingly being used to address the
challenges of access, cost and quality of service in key sectors such as
healthcare, agriculture, utilities, education and financial services.
Following the mobile industry’s commitment to helping deliver the UN’s
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) two years ago5, the
report notes that the industry is making an important contribution
across all 17 SDGs as a result of three key trends: better networks,
greater connectivity and increased use of mobile-enabled services.

“Two years into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the mobile
industry is increasing its impact across all 17 SDGs as a result of
wider mobile reach and better networks,” added Granryd. “There is also
growing adoption of mobile-based tools and solutions that aim to spur
the digitisation of systems, processes and interactions across a number
of industries, especially in low- and middle- income countries.”

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting
nearly 800 operators with more than 300 companies in the broader mobile
ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies,
equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in
adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading
events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai,
Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series of conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com.
Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.

1 There were 7.8 billion SIM connections in 2017, excluding
cellular IoT, forecast to rise to 9 billion by 2025.

5 At Mobile World Congress 2016, the mobile industry became
the first sector to commit as a whole to the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) – a universal plan unanimously adopted in 2015 by all 193
countries in the United Nations General Assembly to end poverty, protect
the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.